Ilse Wouters Send Message

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words
It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells and rapping up like pipes and drums

Oh, won’t you stay
We’ll put on the day
And we’ll wear it ’till the night comes

… (Joni Mitchell – Chelsea morning)

Nothing better than to “put on the day” with a cup of Chelsea breakfast : the addition of Kenya tea makes this breakfast blend stronger, maltier, and definitely more “my cup of tea” than the standard English breakfast blend.

OK, I admit it : I love the “revisited” packaging of these Whittard tea bags! As I really love bergamot flavoured teas, this might have been a sure bet, although I´m not too fond of fruit (flavoured) infusions, and green teas very often have a grassy taste I cannot appreciate…let´s have a taste. I brewed the tea bag as indicated on the box (infuse for 2-3 minutes with water heated to 80ºC), and I must say it´s quite a nice surprise : aromatically the mango dominates, but not overly so, while one notes the green backbone in the just degree and the mouthfeel is definitely bergamot, to satisfy Earl Grey lovers as myself. As far as I´m concerned, this tea suits me more than most of the green earl grey teas I´ve tried so far…maybe the mango addition makes it work after all!

This is also a taster tea bag I received recently. Not exactly the type of tea I would buy (neither the green tea nor (even less, really) the coconut), but I´m always willing to try out things, teas for instance. I prepared the tea as indicated on the tea bag and the first thing I noticed was the colour : grassy green. It smells like freshly cut grass as well, the coconut coming through in a very subtle way. In mouth there are aspects I like (coconut subtle and natural) and others I´m not a fan of (again the grass-like flavour)…unlike other green teas which can be very “weak” even if steeping for a while, this tea is quite the opposite, whether it concerns its taste, smell or visual appearance. This might really be appreciated by others, it´s not my cuppa…

3rd taster of the starter box I received a few days ago and definitely the worst (although I was looking most forward to trying this fruit infusion) : already in nose a lot less interesting than the other tasters (blackcurrant&blueberry or strawberry&raspberry), as I cannot get mango anywhere and the strawberry is very subtle. Then, after steeping it 4 minutes, this is basically an infusion of the hibiscus backbone…neither mango nor strawberry is present. It´s sweet but fortunately not overly sweet (neither is the taste or smell artificial), so it´s easy to drink, has a nice colour and that´s about it. Quite little reason to repeat!

I notice that it´s quite hard writing a review for a tea when it´s so good you´re drinking it over and over again.
I bought a 250g pouch of this 1st flush Darjeeling in 2017, and although I´ve been drinking other teas (and coffees, I´m quite a coffee fan as well) as well, this is the one I turn to when I have my ceramic tea mug and infuser at hand : so easy to put a tsp of tea in the infuser and have it in place for 3-5 minutes.
Last weekend I had my sister-in-law over (she introduced black tea to me, as my mother was more of a herbal tea drinker) and of course, I served her this very elegant tea. Both she and my brother liked it as well…
When we visited Borough market together on Saturday, I saw at a tea stand where a similar tea was sold that you could easily steep this tea a second (and even a third) time, and I might try it one day, but it just feels this way it´s perfect : not too strong, not too weak, and the same applies for a bitterness you want/need in a black tea. Bliss.

The second taster of the small Twinings taster box. Another hibiscus-backbone fruit infusion, but here the hibiscus doesn´t overpower the blackcurrant and blueberry, as this infusion is named. I´m not a big fan of blackcurrant, but here its strong flavour is reasonably balanced (with the hibiscus?). Cannot get the blueberry though. Overall a more than decent fruit infusion.

The other day, my husband “discovered” a litle taster box by Twinings he had received once and had put aside in his bag. I am now doing the tasting of the 3 different fruit infusions, starting with this “strawberry & raspberry”. Both the tea bag as the steeped tea smell nicely, nothing too artificial (quite common with these fruit infusions), and this is fortunately confirmed when drinking it.
The only thing that starts to bother me with the "better "of these fruit infusions (in my opinion when taste isn´t artificial) is that they seem to be all aromatised hibiscus infusions, so the hibiscus is key and the name of the infusion is the aroma which makes the difference between the different infusions, in this case strawberry and raspberry. Very easy to drink, although I prefer infusions a bit less dominated by the hibiscus…

A friend who had taken a short holiday in Miami returned home with this present (I love presents, and I love tea, so it really made my day the day I received it some time last week). Metropolitan Tea Company seems to be a Canadian company known – at least by me – for its “souvenir wooden tea boxes”, and I read online these are only available in North America. The print is really nice, but unfortunately the box itself sort of “colapsed” after I first opened it. Inside was a pack with 12 tea bags, individually tagged. A nice citrusy aroma could be observed, nothing too overwhelming, nor too artificial, which really left a good impression. I brewed the tea according to the indications on the box, and the brew was very fragrant as well, although it had lost a bit in comparison to the tea bags. But when drinking the tea, there´s – surprisingly – little left from the lime fragrances, and the taste is even a bit wood-like. Now, I´m not the biggest citrusy tea fan, so it´s certainly no disaster for me that the lime aroma has only a subtle presence in the final tea. Before writing this review, I made myself another cup this morning, with the same observations. Enjoyable, but probably a huge disappointment for the fans of lemon and lime.

When I visited the The Palais des Thés shop in Angers, I could try this tea in its hot version, and I immediately thought of buying the tea and having it iced. The pink grapefruit makes this a very fresh and refreshing drink, ideal for the hot Summer months. It can be taken hot, but also cold it´s really nice. Morever, the aroma´s are present when opening the tea pouch, but are still wonderful when brewing the tea, and even when the tea is iced… and drunk the day after brewing it! For me, this is definitely a positive point. As my “jardin à la française” blend ran out, this blend is now my “summer iced tea” blend!

I´m not too knowledgeable about white tea, and this tea looks wonderful (big leaves), but I´m not so sure about the way to brew it. The tin says to use 2g and steep in water of 60ºC, for 3- 5 minutes… but I think the result is quite thin after 5 minutes, so I left it a bit longer. To get a bit of colour and hopefully also some more taste…but there, I think I´ll need some more experience with other white teas, in order to compare. Very subtle taste, and nothing too defined. To be continued…